Despite His Being
by speck211
Summary: Another one of my little bits. HBP SPOILERS


**Disclaimer: I do not own any Harry Potter or Star Wars related material.**

**Note: Another one of my small bits that I want to fit into my fic. Any Star Wars fans will have noticed that yes this is taken from Empire Strikes Back, interaction between Han and Leia. I've just always found it adorable.**

To give you some idea of where this might fit into my larger fic, the whole premise is that the Weasley's are, on a promise to Dumbledore somehow arranged before his demise, grudgingly harboring Draco for his protection. This is set after several weeks of his being there and the Weasley twins have taken a liking to "roughing him up" in games and activities. This is just after one such game, perhaps Quidditch or something along those lines, during which Draco obviously sustained some injuries. Enjoy!

Draco stood at the mirror in his room, studying the painful damage inflicted on his once perfect face. He shook his head sadly, wondering why he ever listened to such boorish wankers to begin with. He suddenly saw movement over his left shoulder and looked in the mirror to see Ginny leaning on the doorframe, smirking at him.

"Roughed you up did they?" she asked, winking.

"What do you want?" Draco said crossly, having had his fill of Weasley's for the day.

"No need to get short with me." Ginny retorted haughtily. She stood straight and entered the room. "In fact it would probably do you well to be nice to me, for I bring you relief."

He turned around as she walked over. She was brandishing a bottle of a goopy, foul looking substance. Noting the look of disgust on his face, Ginny smiled.

"Don't worry, it's much milder than it looks and it doesn't come out quite so thick. It's even odorless." She offered it to him, adding jokingly, "And the best part, it'll take the marks right off that pretty face of yours." She gave his chin a motherly pinch.

Draco grabbed the bottle from her with a look of contempt. She raised an eyebrow as he eyed it skeptically.

"Where did you get it?" He asked warily, the sight of the gelatinous liquid swishing about making him sick.

"My mum made it. And believe me she knows all about healing with those bloody oafs she calls sons." She said, quite entertained by the site of Malfoy struggling to get the stopper out of the top of the bottle.

"Well," Draco grunted as he tugged at the plug, which refused to budge. The fact that Ginny was standing there watching him didn't help matters and he turned his back to her before continuing. "I don't doubt you give them a run for their money."

"You think?" Ginny said, reaching around him to take the bottle.

"Yes," he hissed, shrugging her off rather viciously, "you can bother them to death! I can do this myself you know!" He stated angrily. He hadn't really meant to snap at her but he was embarrassed that he couldn't open this damn bottle and the idea that she would try and impose herself on him like that was irritating.

Ginny put her hands up in defense.

"Hey, your worship, I'm only trying to help." She said, disguising the hurt in her voice remarkably well. Draco let out a growl of frustration.

"Would you _please_ stop calling me that?" He bit out over his shoulder.

"Sure, Drake." She replied, stifling a laugh as the bottle slipped from his hands and fell to the ground. Draco released a large breath of defeat, rubbing his forehead to keep from exploding.

"You make it so difficult sometimes." He muttered. He reached to pick up the bottle, but Ginny grabbed it first.

"I do, I really do." She grinned triumphantly. Removing the stopper with little effort, (which of course elicited a sigh from Malfoy), she took out a small cloth from her breast pocket and poured some of the bottle's contents onto it.

"You could be a little nicer though." She said carefully, placing the bottle on the table behind him.

Draco scoffed at the suggestion, though inside he knew she was right. They had taken him in as a wanted criminal, even after the way he'd treated them from day one. The least he could do was be civil. He was just finding it hard to break the habit of being insulting towards them. It had become somewhat of a reflex.

"C'mon admit it," Ginny shook excess liquid from the cloth, "sometimes you think I'm all right." She looked at him expectantly.

Draco turned back to the mirror and studied his face, really only to give himself time to think. He had recently come to realize that every so often he could actually enjoy the Weaslette's company, so long as she didn't push his buttons (which she certainly seemed to enjoy). This realization had unnerved him however, and he wasn't going to let her know about it. He finally spoke, making it as offhand as he could.

"Occasionally, maybe. When you aren't acting like an annoying bint." He smirked inwardly. That ought to put her in her place.

But it didn't quite have the effect he'd hoped for, as Ginny laughed at his words.

"Bint?" She said with amusement. She took his chin in her fingers again and forced his head towards her, holding it up. Before he could even protest she began to dab lightly at the scrape on his cheek with the cloth. "Annoying bint…" she repeated, more thoughtfully this time. "How poetic."

The fact that she would still be kind to him despite his cantankerous mood, coupled with the sudden change in her voice, made Draco decidedly uncomfortable. He wanted to say something to regain control of the situation, but the best he could come up with was,

"Stop that."

Ginny batted her eyes innocently.

"Stop what?" She asked, still cleaning his cut and knowing full well what it was he wanted her to stop.

"Stop that." He said again. "Your hands are dirty." He looked over her head to avoid her gaze, knowing he sounded stupid. _Why did it always come to insults?_

"My hands are perfectly clean." Ginny contested, eyeing him curiously. "What are you afraid of?"

"Afraid?" He tried to sound incredulous but it instead came out as much more of a gasp than he would have liked, betraying his discomfort. _When had she moved so close?_

"You're practically shaking." Her voice had become quieter as she ceased to tend to his scrapes but left her hand on his chin. _Was that flowery scent coming from her?_

"I'm not shaking." He breathed though he knew he was just barely standing. _What was her arm doing around his neck?_

"You like me because I'm an annoying bint." Ginny said, ignoring his feeble reply and moving even closer. "There aren't enough annoying bints in your life."

With one hand occupied in the hair at the back of his neck, she dropped the cloth from the other hand and brought it up to his face. He flinched as her fingers brushed across the scrape on his left cheek, but still found himself otherwise unable to move.

_Most importantly, why wasn't he putting a stop to this?_

With one last attempt to gain the upper hand, he resorted to what he knew best.

"I happen to like normal girls." He summoned all his strength to make his voice sound cold, refusing to let on to the panic he was feeling. He stared at the doorway behind her so as not to look her in the eye.

She seemed rather oblivious to his efforts, though. In fact she brought her face so close that she could see each and every one of his eyelashes separately. She smiled at that thought, saying,

"I'm a normal girl." She moved a strand of hair from his eyes.

"No you're not," Draco began, "your-"

But before any more insults could come spilling out, Ginny sealed them in with her own mouth. Startled, Draco stumbled backwards, hitting the wall behind him. It was about the only movement he could manage; after that, everything became oddly numb quite rapidly except for his lips. It was as if the energy of his entire body had suddenly become focused in that one place. Her lips were ridiculously soft and she was, not surprisingly, rather talented with them. He struggled to remember why this was supposed to be wrong and, all valid reasons having escaped him for the time being, he quickly gave up. Fighting it would have been the logical response, or so he had believed, but instead he found himself relaxing into her. It was impossible to ignore how contented he felt with her in his arms and he held her tighter as the feeling slowly returned to his limbs. He could get used to this…

The kiss was ended abruptly with a large clamoring coming from above them. The jarring sound caused them both to jerk apart in shock. They stood for a moment in awkward silence, Draco staring at Ginny as if she had just given him some terrifying news. Ginny looked up at the ceiling and gave a small, nervous laugh.

"Must be the ghoul in the attic, he likes to-" She looked back down, finding herself alone in the room. She chewed her bottom lip anxiously.

"Now I've done it…"


End file.
